Old-fashioned vegetables - in pictures

Old-fashioned vegetables - in pictures

Those Tudors had some rum ideas when it came to dinner. Swans you can just about understand – they must be rather like large geese – but sparrows and larks? What were they thinking? The closest anyone got to fruit and veg at the average Tudor banquet was the apple in the boar's mouth, but by relegating vegetables to poor men's fodder, they were missing out on more than roughage. The vegetables grown hundreds of years ago often have rich, complex flavours and sturdy constitutions well able to cope with our climate. And now 'nostalgia' vegetables are returning to our gardens. Here are six of the best to grow at home

Sally Nex

Fri 29 Mar 2013 12.30 EDT

Skirret (Sium sisarum)

Mentioned by Pliny the Elder, cow parsley-flowered skirret was grown pretty much from the dawn of history, until it was ousted by the potato.
Grow Sow from seed in March, but be patient – it takes a couple of years to produce its clusters of finger-like roots. Once established, you’ll always have it, because any roots left in the ground regrow.
Cook Choose young, slender roots – fatter ones develop a stringy core. They’re fiddly to clean, but do what you can, and rub off the skins after cooking. Boiled for 10 minutes, skirret has a delicately sweet flavour, between carrots and sweet potatoes.
Buy From
pennardplants.com

Salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius)

This skinny, parsnip-like root was, alongside skirret, the Tudorbethan alternative to potatoes. Salsify has a creamy texture and subtle flavour that’s often compared to oyster.
Grow If you grow carrots and parsnips, you can grow salsify. Sow direct in April and thin to 15cm apart. Its exquisite, violet-blue flowers are also edible.
Cook Thanks to its craggy skin, salsify is fiddly to prepare; peeling after cooking makes things easier. Roast, fry, boil (briefly) or mix 50:50 with spuds for an unusual mash.
Buy From
thompson-morgan.com

Scorzonera (Scorzonera hispanica)

The black, ugly yin to salsify’s yang (they’re distantly related), the roots were once a popular, though ineffectual, treatment for bubonic plague.
Grow ‘Black Russian’ is the one to get. Sow as for salsify: you’ll get larger roots if you leave off harvesting until the second year. The roots are brittle, so dig them out carefully.
Cook Scrub as best you can, then cook in their skins and peel. They have a savoury flavour that’s a little like artichoke hearts. You can also steam and eat the flower buds.
Buy From
marshalls-seeds.co.uk

Sea kale (Crambe Maritima)

The tender forced shoots of this handsome perennial make sea kale a good substitute for early asparagus.
Grow Buy ‘Lillywhite’, the traditional forcing variety, as year-old “thongs” and plant in deep, rich soil. Force from the second year. In December, cover crowns with black buckets or forcing pots. Cut shoots from late January, at 10cm long.
Cook The first sea kale harvest in March is a cause for celebration, but the season’s all too short, ending in May (it’s illegal to harvest in the wild): steam, add butter and pepper, and relish the hazelnutty flavour.
Buy From
organiccatalogue.com

Samphire (Salicornia europaea)

The name is a corruption of St Pierre, patron saint of fishermen. Marsh samphire has been foraged for generations, notably on the Norfolk coast, and is enjoying a major foodie revival.
Grow The seeds germinate well in ordinary damp compost, but after that it’s a labour of love to reproduce coastal conditions for this sparse-looking succulent. Make up a batch of brine for watering (30g salt per litre of water) and keep plants constantly damp. In a cool greenhouse, they stay productive all winter.
Cook The succulent, crunchy stems, barely blanched and served with salmon or sea trout, are salty, tangy and tender – wild, windswept beaches in vegetable form.
Buy From
dtbrownseeds.co.uk

Strawberry spinach (Chenopodium capitatum)

Brought to Britain by German monks in the 1600s, This is is every veg-grower’s fantasy. It grows like a weed and has leafy greens and fruit.
Grow Sow direct from March. It grows to about 60cm and tends to sprawl, so allow plenty of space. Will seed around happily.
Cook Steam young leaves, or enjoy their mildly earthy flavour raw in salads. The 'strawberries' are a bit of a disappointment, because they’re nowhere near as sweet as they look; the flavour is interesting, if faint, with echoes of malted milk biscuits.
Buy From
victoriananursery.co.uk